Post Graduation: Are You Really Independent?

After graduating from college, would you want to continue living with your parents, or do you want to be independent right away?

According to thewrap.com, millennials do not consider themselves adults until the age of 30. However, seniors at Sacred Heart University have different thoughts on adulthood and what they are planning on doing after graduation in 2017.

“After I graduate, I plan on living with my parents and working until I can earn enough money to move out,” said senior A.J Correia. “I plan on saving all my money and not spending it so I can jump into the real world on my own. This will help lower the costs in the beginning when I will not have much of my own money. I’d like to live with my parents for no more than two summers.”

According to The Daily Wire, the market for jobs has been slow since the 2007-2009 recession, and this is only made worse by the increased cost of housing.

In addition, many students graduate from college with a large amount of student loan debt, which is a major factor when bills start to pile up.

“For me, being from New Hampshire, I wanted to get out and see as much of the United States and world as possible,” said senior John Callahan. “One of the best places for the music industry is Los Angeles so I’m going to get an apartment with one of my friends. I took time off from college and now am 24 years old and finishing up school. It’s funny, I still feel like a kid, but once we get a job I feel like that’s when we’re forced to grow up.”

After college, many Sacred Heart students seem they would like to live their youth freely after college and go travel the world.

“For me, it was going abroad to Italy for four months,” said Taves. “I wasn’t sure how to feel about the experience or how I would survive, however I quickly stepped up to the challenge and made the most of it. The most amount of time I would live with my parents is six months,” said Taves. “I think after that it would be time for me to move out and become fully independent.”

Although some students feel that if you are not financially stable it’s more reasonable to live with your parents for a few months after graduation, others believe 21 is the beginning of adulthood.

“I would say you are an adult when you turn 21 simply because the state would legally consider you as one,” said senior Mitchel Fortin.

Whether seniors decide to become independent right away, or live with their parents until they can support themselves is ultimately a decision that they must make for themselves. However, all four students agreed that graduation comes up quickly.

“Don’t take any of it for granted,” said Callahan. “It comes and goes in the blink of an eye.”